Monday, September 05, 2005

Signs of freedom in Brooklyn?

A report back from last night's Brooklyn candidates' meeting in Wellington Central:

The room was packed; there weren't enough chairs, there were people lined up against the walls, and there were people outside the doorways peering in. The crowd of about 150 was feisty with a couple of party rent-a-crowds obvious but the heckling was reasonably good-natured. Best heckle was at Sue Kedgley, talking about alternative transport. She said she had a raft of policies and some wit noted that a raft policy was even worse than a bicycle policy.

Libertarianz' Bernard Darnton got a reasonable response and got his points across with minimum yelling from the audience and Marion Hobbs. The audience was talked over and Marion was corrected and she didn't respond further :-)

Surprise of the night was a question to National about tougher crime policies and their effect on prison overcrowding. Mark Blumsky said that he didn't mind paying to lock people up and build extra prisons. Darnton noted that you could increase sentences, limit parole, etc without increasing the prison population by repealing the Misuse of Drugs Act. There were a few gasps but the main response was applause, which surprised Danton as much as anyone.

Another 150 people heard the libertarian message, and a dozen or so candidates heard it for the nth time.